Winnipeg man living in Los Angeles speaks on experience with California wildfires

Rhos Dyke grew up in Winnipeg and still spends his summers at a cottage in Victoria Beach, Manitoba. He has been a resident of Los Angeles since 1986, and has lived in the Pacific Palisades since 1996. 

Last Tuesday, he was one of the 180,000 people forced to evacuate his home, due to the devastating wildfire. 

“My house is one of maybe 30, 40, 50 houses total that is still standing.  We got one quick look at it when we were being escorted in and out to grab some medications and stuff we needed while we’re camped out here in Manhattan Beach, California at one of my kids’ houses. And Eddie, I’ve been all over the world, there’s no words to describe what you’re looking at whether its pictures vie sent you or what you’ve seen in the media, it’s unbelievable,” explained Dyke.

He told CityNews that he first noticed the fire around 11 a.m. Pacific time on Tuesday morning, by 2 o’clock, he attempted his first evacuation, but couldn’t leave the area due to heavy traffic. By 3:30, he received a mandatory evacuation order and managed to get out safely, though he says the scene was like something out of a Hollywood movie. 

“I couldn’t see much more than the fire truck and the couple of cars in front of me, and there was junk, burning junk in the street. As we come around the corner, to head down on Sunset where Palisades Drive meets Sunset Boulevard, there’s a little fire station 23 is the number, on the edge of a community called Masso Miramar, it’s burned up,” he explained.

Luckily, Rhos and his family, like his home, were not harmed. Though he has no idea when he will be able to return. Though he’s thankful that his house was spared, he says it’s hard to believe the destruction of the town he’s called home for 30 years.

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“I wanted to relate this to my friends in Winnipeg if everything, and I mean everything, was destroyed from the river to Grant and maybe beyond. From Osborne to Kenaston and beyond, and you lived in River Heights, and you are used to going to any of those stores on Academy, or you routinely filled up for gas as you were heading somewhere on Stafford. All of those places, imagine all of them being gone, and everybody that you’re friends with are homeless,” said Dyke. 

In a tweet Sunday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that 60 more Canadian firefighters are being deployed to help, in addition to those already on the ground.